Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson on Sunday sidestepped the question of whether he called President Donald Trump a “moron,” dismissing the brouhaha as the “petty stuff ” of Washington.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Sunday that President Donald Trump wants him to push forward on diplomacy with North Korea “until the first bomb drops.”
Tillerson’s comments on ABC’s “This Week” program on Sunday apparently weren’t meant literally as a timeline for war, as he preceded that quote by saying, “He has made it clear to me to continue my diplomatic efforts” and that those efforts “will continue until the first bomb drops.”
Still, they came as South Korean military officials are readying for another possible missile launch by Pyongyang. Multiple South Korean media reports over the weekend, citing unidentified military officials, said North Korean missile vehicles “kept appearing and disappearing” from the map and “transporter erector launchers” had been spotted carrying ballistic missiles.
Several times, Trump has said that diplomacy with North Korea — including Tillerson’s effort — was futile, saying in a Twitter post on Oct. 7 that “only one thing will work!” in dealing with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s ambitions for nuclear weapons capable of reaching the U.S.
On other Sunday talk shows, Tillerson sidestepped the question of whether he truly had called Trump a “moron,” dismissing the brouhaha as the “petty stuff ” of Washington, and insisted that the persistent queries aren’t hindering his mission as the nation’s top diplomat.
Asked about a leading GOP senator’s comment — “You cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state” — Tillerson would have none of it. “I checked. I’m fully intact.”
Tillerson declined in a news show interview to attest to the accuracy of the report about his use of the word “moron” to describe the commander in chief.
Tillerson said he was “not dignifying the question with an answer,” reprising his response from earlier this month, the morning the story broke, when he used a televised statement to insist he had nothing but respect for Trump.
“I’m not making a game out of it,” Tillerson said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” Asked once more, he replied: “I’m not playing.”
Tillerson insisted the relationship is solid and that the continuing public focus on whether he’s being undermined by the president has not impeded his ability to succeed in his role.